Pelts or furs are highly appreciated in the clothing and fashion industry. In particular pelts or furs from animals such as fox and mink are highly valued. The furs are traditionally produced from animals bred on farms where it is possible to produce healthy animals with desired properties, whereby the desire for fur with specific qualities such as colour and hair density may be met.
Normally, the farmed animals are killed and skinned, and then the fur or pelt is treated to obtain a high quality fur. When the fur is removed from the animal body, the fur is scraped to remove traces of fat and meat and thereafter mounted on a pelt board for stretching and drying. The stretching is carried out by mounting the pelt board with the fur in a stretching machine, e.g. as disclosed in European Patent EP 1678331 B1 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,900,488).
The stretching machine comprises one or more holders, conventionally four holders to hold a part of the fur in a fixed position. This means, that in the conventional stretching machine, two holders hold the fur on its back side and two holders hold the fur on its stomach side. The holders are adapted to press against a flange in which the pelt board is slidably mounted. A part of the fur, i.e. the lower part of the fur closest to the tail, is mounted on the flange and is squeezed between the flange and the holders when the stretching machine is activated. Thus, when the stretching machine is activated, the holders squeeze the fur towards the flange and fix this lower part of the fur. Subsequently, the stretching machine pushes the pelt board upwards in a sudden movement, thereby stretching the fur in the longitudinal direction.
As the furs are paid according to size, the farmers try to stretch the furs as much as possible. However, as explained above, when the stretching machine is activated, the holders are also activated and squeeze the fur between the flange and the holders. This will also mean that hair is squeezed and caught between the holders and the flange, which may cause the hairs to be pulled out of the fur. This is in particular a problem when the fur is subjected to more extreme stretching. Moreover, the treatment may also cause damage to hair follicles, causing hair to fall off the fur, leaving hairless spots.
The hairless spots on the fur are highly undesired, as it may cause the potential buyers to reject the fur, or if the fur is not rejected the price will be significantly reduced. Consequently, it is desirable to be able to stretch the furs longer without damaging parts of the fur, and avoiding the hairless spots.